Detroit Free Press Business Writer John Gallagher has been looking at the progress and the obstacles for the new bridge to Windsor.

He reported that with a new CEO on board and plans to hire staffers moving ahead, the bridge project seemed sure to get built. But there are still unknowns that can delay the completion date targeted around 2020.

One of the main obstacles is the legal challenge raised by the Moroun family, owners of the Ambassador Bridge.

Most of us resent freeloaders – people who take and take, but don’t give back. People who never pick up the check at a restaurant. Everyone knows someone like that.

Well, today I want to introduce you to a new one.

This time it is a country, not a person, and she is refusing to pay not just her fair share, but any part of a mutually beneficial business proposition essential for Michigan’s future.

Worse, she is exploiting her closest ally and best friend.

The name of our welfare cheat, who happens to be rather rich herself, is the United States of America. And who she is exploiting is Canada. And on top of all that, we are doing so in a way intensely humiliating to ourselves.

The Ohio state Senate has approved a resolution supporting a new international bridge between Detroit and Windsor.

The senators say Ohio needs that bridge as much as Michigan does.

Ohio senators say their state does $31 billion worth of bilateral trade with Canada every year – trade that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in Ohio.

The bi-partisan resolution says trade and travel between Ohio and Canada will only increase in the future, and a modern border crossing is essential to support it. The resolution notes the age of the existing Ambassador Bridge, at 83 years.

Owners of the Ambassador Bridge have lobbied fiercely to block a new bridge, and Republicans in the Michigan legislature recently shelved bills to start a public-private partnership with Canada, despite Governor Snyder’s strong support for the bills.

Governor Snyder says he still hopes to win the legislature's support for the project, which will cost the state nothing, because Canada and Ontario have offered to pay the state's $550 million share of the cost.